The King and I (1956) I really enjoyed this, it was beautiful and almost entrancing to watch. The almost romance between Anna and the King was subtle and endearing and I confess to shedding a few tears towards the end of the film. The musical numbers were, as most Rodgers and Hammerstein ones are, brilliant. Shall We Dance in particular just makes me want to twirl around a room in a ballgown.

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How can we be happy in a world where predictive text can spell Indictment but not Flapjacks?

You Only Live Once (1937) - Henry Fonda stands out as the ex-convict whose desperate attempts to go straight are thwarted by the unforgiving nature of society. Directed by Fritz Lang. 3/5Out Of The Past (1948) - Robert Mitchum is at his laconic best whilst Jane Greer is the perfect femme fatale in director Jack Tourneur's unbeatable noir masterpiece. 5/5

Fata Morgana (1971) - Part Mayan creation myth, part anthropological study, Werner Herzogs documentary of mirages in the Sahara Desert is infuriatingly abstract yet visually provocative. 3/5Gentleman's Agreement (1947) - Investigative journalist Gregory Peck poses as a Jew in order to expose anti-semitism in this preachy and slightly dated Oscar winner from Elia Kazan. 3/5And I've been in B-movie heaven these last few days!!!

The Lucky Texan (1934) - John Wayne and George Hayes star as the prospector who strike gold only to be cheated by some villainous townsfolk in this light-hearted western. 2/5

Great Guy (1936) - James Cagney oozes charisma as the crusading weights and measures investigator determined to bring down a seemingly respectable organised gang in this enjoyable caper. 3/5Midnight (1934) - Creaky, convoluted but well intentioned drama. O.P Heggie plays a jury foreman whose questioning of a defendant ultimately leads to her death sentance but who is then forced to question is own moral convictions on the night of the execution when his own daughter (Sidney Fox) claims to have shot her gangster lover (Humphrey Bogart). 2/5

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"People think I have an interesting walk. Hell, I'm just trying to hold my gut in."

If I get there early will it be the right time our heaven is just waiting so put your hand into mine.

Sleeper - See my Woody Allen thread in GO for a review. In short I think it is one of the funniest films ever made 5/5

Blazing Saddles Now I have the same feelings about this movie every time I see it. The first half and hour - forty five minutes is some of the funniest spoof-comedy committed to film and I do laugh out loud every time. But for me the movie takes a drastic dip somehwere around this point and never gets back to the quality of the opening. Regardless it is still a good funny film that I have in my DVD collection

Il Gattopardo (1963) - Burt Lancaster puts in a gigantic performance as a Sicilian aristocrat observing the end of an era in Luchino Visconti's rich and lustrous historical epic. With Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale. 5/5

Les Enfants Du Paradis (1945) - An aristocrat, an actor, a murderer and a mime all vie for the affections of the beautiful Garance (Arletty) in this lushly epic love tragedy directed by Marcel Carné. 5/5

Ostre Sledované Vlaky (1967) - Set towards the end of World War II, Václav Neckár plays a naive apprentice railway signalman who yearns to come of age in this deceptively gentle drama that is both tinged with farce and tragedy and laced with sexual awakening. Directed by Jiri Menzel. 4/5

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"People think I have an interesting walk. Hell, I'm just trying to hold my gut in."

If I get there early will it be the right time our heaven is just waiting so put your hand into mine.

This is directed by Frank Capra, but it's completely different to his other work. I found it hard going and it wasn't helped by the fact that they had to replace some of the film with stills as some of the film had been lost. None of the characters were particularly likeable either.

Seven Men from Now (Budd Boetticher, 1956) Randolph Scott's collaborations with Western maverick Budd Boetticher are the stuff of movie legend. Building on the complexity and moral ambiguity of the Mann/Stewart genre films, they fashioned masterful chamber Westerns: stirring, unforgettable tales with strong, weary loner heroes. The four stand-outs were all scripted by Burt Kennedy: Ride Lonesome, The Tall T, Comanche Station and Seven Men from Now. Unavailable for many years (and topping my "to-see" list for the last couple), it has now been restored and released on Region 1 DVD. The disc includes a fine documentary profile of Boetticher.

Scott plays Ben Stride, a mysterious stranger who agrees to escort two Eastern newlyweds through Indian country. In Ride Lonesome the revelation is a long time in coming. Here we get it straight away. Lee Marvin's greedy, sleazy Masters tells it. A hold-up in the town of Silver Springs. A gold theft, a getaway and a pretty corpse - Stride's wife. It's the stand-out scene in a film packed with wonder. Stride is hell-bent on revenge, and all the human kindness in the world isn't going to stop him.

Scott makes for a great troubled hero, his slow, steady delivery imbuing Kennedy's awesome dialogue with startling emotion. It's a performance his detractors can't explain away. Marvin blows him off the screen. Six years before Valance, we see the making of the man. Conceit and resentment colour him, but it's Masters' pride that lives on in the memory. Kennedy's most audacious move is to run two climactic shoot-outs one after the other. It's a stunning concept, and when the bad guys hit the ground first time around, the only ones left standing are two flawed heroes ... and one of them has to die. Gail Russell takes the female lead, and does a fine job. Don Barry is convincing in support.

I can't recall hyping a film up in my own mind to such a degree before watching it, but somehow it surpassed even those expectations. Stunning, compelling, beautiful, offbeat and perfectly-paced, it's utterly devastating. One of the best Westerns ever made. (4)

A Matter of Life and Death (1946) - Charming but very different to what I remembered. If you can overlook the shmaltz then there is some solid acting and some very intiguing moments.

49th Parallel (1941) - An interesting film charting the escapades of six german soldiers as they try to escape Canada when they find themselves marooned there after their submarine is detroyed. Perhaps a little overly long but full of interesting characters, some cracking British stiff upper lip dialogue and some triumphant moments.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) - Directed by the very talented Howard Hawkes this film is at worst an afront to women everywhere, and at best, good fun with some great musical numbers with the ever dazzling Marilyn Monroe.

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The World is a fine place, and worth fighting for... I agree with the second part.

"You're so consumed by your personal vengeance against life, whether it be its inherent cruelties or its mysteries, that everything takes on a warped significance to fit your meglo-maniacal cosmology." "Scully, are you coming on to me?"

BlackNarcissus (1947) and The Philadelphia Story (1940). Watched both for the first time. Both very good indeed. For different reasons obviously. The colour cinematography in The Philadelphia Story was shit. And Black Narcissus wasn't much of a romantic comedy.

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'Don't worry darling, its just a hat, belonging to a small headed man of limited means, who lost a fight with a chicken. '

Yesterday I watched The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari on my own in a dark room and then spent all night twitching in alarm when I heard noises as I tried to sleep. I hadn't really expected it to get inside my head so much. I admit that for the first 10-15 minutes I was wondering how people had found it so creepy, but by the end I completely understood why the film had been so reccomended to me. It's a very absorbing film to watch and the gothic sets and dark and twisted atmosphere make it almost nightmarish in appearance and feeling. It was like nothing I've watched before, and I'm now looking forward to seeing more films of the same expressionist era.

I also watched High Society at the weekend and enjoyed it immensely.

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How can we be happy in a world where predictive text can spell Indictment but not Flapjacks?

Yesterday I watched The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari on my own in a dark room and then spent all night twitching in alarm when I heard noises as I tried to sleep. I hadn't really expected it to get inside my head so much. I admit that for the first 10-15 minutes I was wondering how people had found it so creepy, but by the end I completely understood why the film had been so reccomended to me. It's a very absorbing film to watch and the gothic sets and dark and twisted atmosphere make it almost nightmarish in appearance and feeling.

I read that that was why it end the way that it does. I think that it was Fritz Lang who changed when he was orginally going to direct. They made it so that Francis was one lunatics to explain the twisted landscape and scenary but it just made it more confusing.